Stephen Hall stands out among contemporary architects for his poetic approach to design. He understands architecture as a world of phenomena: colors, smells, textures, sounds associated with human existence. However, despite the large number of texts he wrote, his approach is more practice-oriented than theoretical understanding of architecture.
According to some researchers, the work of Stephen Hall is based on phenomenology and is most of all connected with the ideas of the French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty [1, p. 2]. The architect himself has repeatedly emphasized his passion for phenomenological thought: “I immediately discovered the connection between the texts of Merleau-Ponty and architecture. And I began to read everything I could find from him”[2, p. 302]. The architect turns to phenomenology because of its closest proximity to architecture as a practice. According to Hans-Georg Gadamer, phenomenology is a practical philosophy. It is closest to the description of poetry, painting, architecture, which is practical knowledge, close to the Greek "techne" - art, craft. Phenomenology is necessary for Stephen Hall for reflection on his own work, for the theoretical foundation of architectural practice.
Thoselo
For Stephen Hall, the key issue is perception. He believes that it is the way we see and feel architecture that shapes its understanding. We have no other way of recognizing architecture. For Maurice Merleau-Ponty, perception is the understanding of the world: “So, the question is not whether we actually perceive the world, on the contrary, the whole point is that the world is what we perceive” [3, p. 16]. What makes architecture possible is that it and our body exist in the same field of reality. The presence of our body in the world allows us to experience the experience of architecture, which is not only visual, but also tactile, auditory, olfactory. Stephen Hall says: “When you look at a book with pictures of even the world's greatest building, you will not be able to understand what that building really is. Without being near him, you will not hear the melody that arises due to his special acoustics, you will not feel his materiality and spatial energy, his unique play of light”[4].
Hall calls the perception of phenomena, that is, space, light, materials, sounds "the pre-theoretical basis of architecture." He contrasts the phenomenological approach with a critical, rational assessment of architecture. The phenomenal aspects of architecture are the basis for direct contact between man and the world, overcoming the alienation of consciousness from being. Through them, Hall seeks to bring architecture to the level of feelings, to bring it closer to a person: "The materiality of architecture has the potential to seriously influence the experience of space … One of the important tasks today for architects and city planners is the awakening of feelings" [5, p. eighteen].
Similarly, in the process of perception, Merleau-Ponty seeks direct and primitive contact with the world, which he understands not as a direct reflection of objects of reality affecting the senses, but as a special "sensibility", as a way of accepting the world, being in it. Merleau-Ponty denies the possibility of phenomenological reduction, realizing that man is “thrown” into the world through corporeality: “If we were an absolute spirit, reduction would not pose any problem. But since we, on the contrary, are in the world, since our reflections take place in the time stream that they are trying to capture, there is no such thinking that would cover our thought”[3, p. thirteen]. Due to the impossibility of reduction, Merleau-Ponty finds a place where consciousness and the world exist without conflict - this is our body. The body, according to the philosopher, was alienated from perception and from I, because it was thought of as an object, a thing among things: "A living body subjected to such transformations ceased to be my body, a visible expression of a specific Ego, turning out to be a thing among other things" [3, from. 88]. The body, perceived as an object, is deprived of rights in the process of perception, destroying the single nature of the subject and the world. Nevertheless, the body for Merleau-Ponty, and after him - for Hall, is the only thing that connects us to the world. “The thickness of the body, being far from competing with the thickness of the world, is, nevertheless, the only means that I have to get to the heart of things: turning myself into the world, and things into flesh” [6, p. 196].
We can perceive architecture because the world and our body have a homologous nature. According to Merleau-Ponty, the constitution of the world does not occur after the constitution of the body, the world and the body arise simultaneously. Architecture exists in the world, and can be understood as another body, constituted by vision, perception.
Hall describes the space as soft and pliable for perception, he seeks to shape the body of the building in projects by the very process of seeing. In the building of the Knut Hamsun Center in northern Norway, Stephen Hall embodies the idea of "Building as a body: a battlefield of invisible forces" [7, p. 154]. This motto refers to Hamsun's novel Hunger. The building seeks to express the peculiarities of the Norwegian writer's works by architectural means, and one of the main themes of Hamsun's work is the principle of the relationship between the body and human consciousness.
The shape of this building - both interior and exterior - has a special meaning. So, for example, tarred wooden walls have many accentuated depressions, embodying the influence of invisible internal forces and impulses that have transformed the building. According to Hall, a building is a body formed by the intention of our consciousness, the direction of vision. The hall directly works with this body, creates maps of perception, controls the feelings of the viewer.
Uncertainty
Stephen Hall argues that the presence of a body allows one to perceive its “living spatial dimension” in architecture [2, p. 38]. He addresses the vital sphere of perception of architecture, space, light, material at the intersection with human experience. However, we cannot transcend from the experience of our body, so understanding and feeling architecture is not an articulated experience, its “awareness” comes from the body, not from consciousness: “We are aware of the conceptual intensity of the basic sensory-spatial and tactile experience, even if we are not we can articulate it”[8, p. 115].
Merleau-Ponty speaks of the uncertainty and inexpressibility of the perceived located in the context: “Nothing else but the attachment of the perceived to the context, its pliability, as well as the presence in it of a kind of positive uncertainty prevent spatial, temporal and numerical aggregates from finding expression in convenient, distinguishable and definable concepts”[3, p. 36]. Perceived is inseparable from the context, because it is perceived from it. It is impossible to transcend from the context, since the perceiving consciousness itself is located in it, it is the context.
The uncertainty of experience, the impossibility of its precise symbolic definition and completion, Stephen Hall uses in his building design strategies: “We start every project with information and disorder, a lack of purpose, an ambiguous program of infinity of materials and forms. Architecture is the result of action in this uncertainty”[9, p. 21]. Hall projects perception from within himself, therefore uncertainty appears, the impossibility of reflecting on the very process of creating the perceived.
Largely due to this way of thinking, the only tool for movement in the field of uncertainty for the architect is intuition. Stephen Hall starts out by creating watercolor sketches for each of his ideas. This intuitive and "craft" practice creates a mood, gives the project a primary direction, intuition. “The advantage of watercolors is the freedom to play the intuition they provide. As a result, they are both conceptual and spatial. They allow you to make discoveries with the help of intuition”[10, p. 233].
Stephen Hall conceives phenomenology as "making architecture." Theorists such as Christian Norberg-Schulz, Juhani Palaasma and Kenneth Frampton interpret phenomenology as a theory of architecture, but for Stephen Hall it has a different potential. For him, design is the disclosure of the invisible, undefined in the process of creating an architecture. Hall says phenomenology is capable of dealing with “not-yet-thought” and “not-yet-phenomenon”, which manifest themselves directly in the process of “making architecture”.
In the absence of conscious reflection on design and method, the architectural thought for Hall is manifested through the phenomena of architecture: “Buildings speak through the silence of the perceived phenomenon” [11, p. 40]. According to the architect, the experience of phenomena refers not only to the visual experience of perception, tactile, auditory and olfactory sensations play a significant role. The whole set of bodily sensations forms a certain whole idea of the world, of architecture. In the absence of one of the qualities of the world, the picture becomes simpler, loses full contact with our body. “Materials lose their spatial dimension and are reduced to flat," alluvial "surfaces. The sense of touch is devalued in commercial, industrial methods of production. The value of the part and the material is displaced”[12, p. 188].
Of all the phenomena, according to Hall, light is the most influential: “My favorite material is light itself. Without light, space dwells in oblivion. Light is a condition for the appearance of darkness and shadow, transparency and opacity, reflection and refraction, all this intertwines, defines and redefines space. Light makes space indefinite”[13, p. 27]. Space always exists as illuminated, visible. Light, due to its mutability, mobility, non-grasping, makes space indefinable.
The “naive perception” of architectural phenomena through different forms of vision and feeling is outside the sign structure. This is due to the fundamental non-articulation of bodily experience, which exists before naming. According to Hall, the “living spatial dimension” of architecture cannot be determined, it turns out to be grasped only at an intuitive level in the practice of architecture.
Hybrid
It should be noted that Stephen Hall's ideas do not always come from Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology. So, for example, the idea of hybridization has a different origin. Early in his career, Stephen Hall was interested in Italian rationalism and researched architectural typology. His reasoning about types can be found in texts such as, “The Alphabet City. Urban and rural types of houses in North America”and some others [14, p. 105]. Thus, the idea of a typological "hybrid" appears already in his early theoretical studies.
Stephen Hall believes that it is necessary to create something new by superimposing simple components on top of each other. Components can be function, form, social aspect, historical fact, natural or social phenomenon. Sometimes this synthesis seems impossible, but in the end it turns out to be the most productive. Hall says: “A hybrid mix of functions in a building can be more than just a mix of uses. This overlap can become a "social condenser" - the primary interaction of the vitality of the city, an increase in the role of architecture as a catalyst for change "[15]. For Hall, it is not the "production of novelty" that is much more important, but what effect this or that synthesis has on man and the world.
"Hybrid" does not allow you to accurately define and fix its meaning and type. This uncertainty allows architecture to escape the yoke of logocentrism and rationality. If space and its perception are constantly evolving, then how can you accurately determine the function of a building, its appearance, type? All this remains in the field of inaccuracies and changes, since it is associated with the very living existence of architecture. Thus, the idea of hybridization is related to the uncertainty and bodily existence of architecture, that is, in a certain sense, it is also phenomenological.
Stephen Hall often refers to this idea in his projects. One of the first such ideas is described in the text "The Bridge of Houses" of the collection "Pamphlets of Architecture" [16]. Any building for an architect turns out to be a bridge, housing, a skyscraper with many horizontal connections, a museum and a public space at the same time. Hall adds functions separated by commas, while they are not sequential, not side by side, you cannot choose the main one from them, they exist simultaneously and are not fully defined.
A multifunctional commercial complex has been designed based on the principle of hybridization
Vanke Center in Shenzhen. Its length is equal to the height of New York's "Empire State Building", and to the public the building is better known as the "horizontal skyscraper". This building is elongated in the horizontal plane, but has the structural characteristics of a skyscraper: the architect creates a hybrid of a skyscraper and a horizontal structure. But other components also serve for synthesis, which are not located in the same row with the category of building height.
The building houses all kinds of functions: offices, apartments, a hotel, etc. It is installed on eight pillars and hovers 35 meters above the public space below it - a garden that complements the synthesis with visual (flowering tropical plants) and olfactory (jasmine scent) components. The building uses an incredible amount of carefully selected materials. The building is a complex hybrid of horizontal structure, skyscraper, function, materials, smells, public and commercial spaces. Many different phenomena and properties overlap, intertwine, interact. Conjunctive synthesis arises, where phenomena constantly form the integrity of the perceived, but do not merge into one. A hybrid is always a hybrid.
Intertwining idea and phenomenon
According to Hall, architecture comes to life when it bridges the gap between idea and reality, connects mind and feelings, concept and body. The project should be designed carefully, bringing the various aspects into a single coherent form. According to the architect, the invisible world of ideas activates the phenomenal world, brings it to life. Idea and phenomenon are intertwined, form a single process: “… conceptualization in architecture cannot be separated from the perception of the phenomenon of architecture, with their help architecture acquires empirical and intellectual depth” [1, p. 123]. However, for Hall, this is not just a combination of two equal elements, it is their special relationship, which the architect, following Merleau-Ponty, calls chiasm.
The concept of chiasm, or interweaving, is necessary for Merleau-Ponty to explain how our perception is inscribed in the world, to show that our relationship to being is to accept and at the same time to be accepted. In perception, there is a complete blurring of the boundaries of the objective and subjective, ideas and phenomena, they are mixed, intertwined in indiscernibility. Chiasm is the interweaving of the visible and the invisible, the overcoming of duality. “The most important achievement of phenomenology is, undoubtedly, in the fact that it succeeded in combining extreme subjectivism with extreme objectivism in its concept of the world and rationality” [3, p. 20].
Stephen Hall points out the phenomenal origins of ideas. They are rooted in reality and not transcendent: “I would like to discover the phenomenal origin of an idea. I hope to combine phenomenal properties with conceptual strategy”[17, p. 21]. For Hall, the idea is not something deterministic, distinguishable. The idea is intuitively grasped by the perception itself. The architect argues that the intertwining of idea and phenomenon occurs when a building is "realized and realizes", that is, literally, in the moment of its presence in reality. Kenneth Frampton also notes this idea in the architect's approach: “Of necessity, Hall brings together the conceptual level of his work and the phenomenological experience of its presence. Phenomenology in Hall's understanding in various ways enhances and elevates the conceptual”[18, p. 8].
An excellent example of the intertwining of idea and phenomenon, Stephen Hall embodies in his
Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki. The very idea of a museum is an intertwining, intersection (chiasm) of ideas and phenomena. Structurally, the building is the intersection of two buildings. One building corresponds to the orthogonal grid of the city, the second building develops the idea of interaction with the landscape. Stephen Hall creates the unusual geometry of the museum. “The realization of the idea and its verification is in the experience of architecture: what you feel when passing through a building, how the body moves, how it interacts with other bodies, how light, perspective, sounds, smells work. This entire phenomenological layer should flow from the main idea”[19]. The architect strives to design not the physical form, volume, space, but feelings, the very process of perception. Thus, in a museum, the perceiver experiences the idea of interweaving spaces not conceptually, but bodily.
Rootedness
Merleau-Ponty says that the subject exists in space and time, where there is a specific situation. A person finds himself already in the world, involved in various practices, where the processes of perception cease to be subjective and are determined by the logic of the context. According to the philosopher, we need a return from objective and subjective perception to the "life world", to which we ourselves are immanent: could understand the laws and limits of the objective world, return things to its specific appearance, organisms - their own way of relating to the world, subjectivity - an inherent historicity, to find phenomena, that layer of life experience through which we are first given the Other and things … "[3, p. 90].
The idea of the "world of life" mentioned by Merleau-Ponty is reflected in Hall's concepts of "rootedness," "constraints," "the spirit of the place." Architecture for him is present in all areas of human life, forms his idea of the world, it “can change the way we live” [20, p. 43]. Architecture turns out to be rooted in the very existence of man, it is a condition for his "living" in the world. Hall is convinced that architecture should not only interact with a specific context, but that it is important to be “rooted” in reality. “Architecture is an all-consuming, entangling experience of interacting with reality. It is impossible to imagine it on a plane in the form of geometric figures in planimetry. This is a phenomenological experience, that is, the totality and unity of phenomena in space, not just visual elements, but also sounds, smells, tactile qualities of materials”[4]. Architecture is not just an image on a piece of paper, it takes in a variety of aspects of reality.
Hall describes architecture as a statement that always exists in a cultural context [21, p. 9]. But, in his opinion, the idea-concept not only reflects the peculiarities of the existing local cultural tradition, but penetrates into the aura of the place, strengthens and emphasizes the uniqueness of the situation. The context exists for the architect not only as an articulated cultural history of the place, but also in the form of experiencing the situation, the atmosphere of the place. The hall seeks to create an emotional connection with the locality, landscape, history. He says: “It is important to catch the idea that floats in the air of every place. It can be anything: stories passed from mouth to mouth, live folklore, unique humor. After all, the original and authentic elements of culture are so strong that they make us forget about style”[4].
Important to Stephen Hall is the idea of a limited concept. Constraints allow him to identify the uniqueness of a particular situation. In each new project, the situation changes and new conditions appear. They do not limit the architect to methodological principles, but provide the ability to create a contextually rooted object.
An example of the described approach can be many buildings of Stephen Hall. The most contextually clear objects are those close to landscape projects. One of them,
The Ocean and Surfing Center was designed by Stephen Hall and his wife, Brazilian artist Solange Fabian, on the Atlantic coast in Biarritz, the birthplace of surfing. The aim of the project was to draw attention to the problems of the ecology of water, the study of the scientific aspects of the surf and the ocean, the role of water in our life as a resource and entertainment.
The building plays up the plasticity of the surf wave and develops the spatial concept of the relationship between the parts "under the sky" and "under water". This idea gives rise to the contextual form of the building. The “under the sky” portion is the exploited roof of the curved slab of the building called Ocean Square, a public space paved with cobblestones. There are two glass "cobblestones" on the square with a cafe and a kiosk for surfers. They are visual dominants and poetically refer to two real boulders in the ocean side by side. The Ocean Museum is located in a part called "underwater": the interior, thanks to the concave ceiling and the absence of windows, gives the impression of being submerged.
Thus, the center successfully fits into the surrounding space and becomes a context itself. It is a formal expression of the place of construction and its function, but also emotionally interacts with the landscape and atmosphere. He has taken "his" place and is in it. This is what Hall calls "rootedness in place."
Bias
Another important concept for Hall is offset, or parallax. Parallax can be defined as the apparent movement of a body in space caused by the movement of the observer (or observing instrument). Hall describes parallax as “fluid space,” a constantly changing landscape: “Architecture is a phenomenological discipline, and I believe that we can only understand it by being aware of the moment when our bodies move through space. If you turn your head, look away, or turn to the other side, you will see another, just opened space. And you got this opportunity only because you made a movement”[4].
The concept of parallax helps Stephen Hall to explain the instability of space perception. We see architecture differently at every moment in time. The angle of view changes, the lighting throughout the day, the age of the materials. The living body of architecture is dynamic and mobile; it exists in time. In confirmation, Hall says: "A house is not an object, it is a dynamic relationship of terrain, perception, sky and light, with special attention to internal scenarios of movement … Even in a small house, you can admire the overlay of perspectives that occurs due to movement, displacement, changing illumination." [22, p. 16].
But the perceiver himself, his body in space, also changes. Here Stephen Hall in his judgments follows Henri Bergson, who speaks of our own change in time. “Feelings, feelings, desires, representations - these are modifications that make up parts of our existence and color it in turn. So, I am constantly changing”[23, p. 39]. Mood, personal experiences, those changes that affect our body are superimposed on perception. They happen all the time, even if we feel some stability and sequence of events. We are aware of a shift in perception when we are already in that shift.
Perception exists in duration, that is, it changes in time along with the transformation of space and the body of the perceiver itself. In reality, perception cannot be divided into objective and subjective, it always retains some integrity. “Ultimately, we cannot separate the perception of geometry, actions and feelings” [24, p. 12].
For Merleau-Ponty, perception as an emerging relationship between the world and the subject is possible only in time. In his opinion, subjectivity is just temporality. “We think of being through time, because it is through the relationship of the time-subject and time-object that one can understand the relationship between the subject and the world” [3, p. 544].
A striking example of Stephen Hall's work with time and the concept of "displacement" is the New City of Makuhari quarter in the Japanese city of Chiba (1996). The idea was the interaction between two specific types of structures: "heavy" buildings and active "light" structures. The walls of the heavy buildings are curved in such a way that light enters the interior of the block and the buildings themselves at certain angles during the day. Lightweight structures gently curve the space and invade aisles.
The quarter has a special perception program. For this project, Hall made a diagram showing the location of the shadows throughout the day. The shape of the main blocks is created in accordance with the required spatial scenario of shadows, which cast the bodies on each other and on the space between them. Hall thinks of the building as a process that produces certain effects of perception in space. The games of shadow and light during the day make the building changeable, unstable, surreal.
* * *
Stephen Hall is one of the few architects who tries to conceptualize his creativity. However, despite frequent references to phenomenology, it is not easy to trace the connection with this philosophical trend in his constructions. Despite the consistency of his method, Hall remains a poetic master oriented towards architectural practice. Rather, he develops individual thinking strategies for each project in accordance with some phenomenological guidelines. This approach can be described as a practical phenomenology in architecture. He contrasts his method with critical and abstract architectural thinking and seeks to address the phenomena themselves. In this sense, phenomenology turns out to be the correct methodological choice. According to Hall, “phenomenology is interested in studying the essence of things: architecture has the potential to return them to existence” [24, p. eleven].
The phenomenological concepts described by Hall turn out to be close to architects. They refer to the concepts of kinesthesia, experience, material, time, man, body, light, etc. They promise a return to reality, to the experienced and immanent world: “Various smells, sounds and materials - from solid stone and metal to freely floating silk - returns us to the original experience that frames and penetrates into our daily life”[24, p. eleven].
Literature
1. Yorgancıoğlu D. Steven Holl: A Translation of Phenomenological Philosophy into the Realm of Architecture. Degree of master of architecture. The Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences of Middle East Technical University, Ankara, 2004.
2. Holl S. Parallax, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2000
3. Merleau-Ponty M. Phenomenology of perception / Per. from French edited by I. S. Vdovina, S. L. Fokin. SPb: "Juventa", "Science", 1999.
4. Vin A. Interview, © ARKHIDOM Magazine, No. 80 [Electronic resource]. URL:
5. Holl S. Simmon Hall. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2004.
6. Merleau-Ponty M. Visible and Invisible / Per. with fr. Shparagi O. N. - Minsk, 2006.
7. Holl S. “Concept 1998” in Hamsun Holl Hamarøy, Lars Müller Publishers, 2009.
8. Holl S. Kenchiku Bunka 8, Vol.52 No 610, Aug. 1997.
9. Holl S. “Pre-theoretical Ground,” The Steven Holl Catalog, Zurich: Artemis and ArcenReve Center d'Architecture, 1993.
10. Hall S. Game of reflections and refractions. Interview with Vladimir Belogolovsky // Speech. 2011. No. 7
11. Holl S. Questions of Perception. Phenomenology of Architecture. Tokyo: A + U, 1994.
12. Holl S. "The Matter (s) of Architecture: A Note on Hariri and Hariri", in K. Frampton. S. Holl and O. Riera Ojeda. Hariri and Hariri. New York: The Monacelh Press, 1995.
13. Holl S. "Idea. Phenomenon and Material", in B. Tschumi and I. Cheng (eds). The State of Architecture at the Beginning of the 21st Centwy. New York: The Monacelli Press, 2003.
14. Holl S. Architecture Spoken. New York: Rizzoli, 2007.
15. Holl S. Steven Holl Volume 1: 1975-1998, GA / Tokyo A. D. A. Edita, 2012.
16. Holl S. Pamphlet Architecture 7: Bridge Of Houses. William Stout Books, 1981.
17. Zaera Polo A. “A Conversation with Steven Holl,” El croquis (revised and extended edition) Mexico: Arquitectos Publishing, 2003, pp. 10-35.
18. Frampton K. “On The Architecture Of Steven Holl” in S. Holl. Anchoring. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989.
19. Paperny V. Stephen Hall: Malevich Square and Menger's Sponge // Fuck context ?. - M.: Tatlin, 2011.
20. Holl S. Dwellings. The Steven Holl Catalog. Zurich: Artemis and arc en reve center d'architecture, 1993.
21. Holl S. Anchoring, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1989.
22. Holl S. House: Black Swan Theory. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2007.
23. Bergson A. Creative evolution / per. with fr. V. Flerova. M.: Terra-book club, Canon-Press-C, 2001.
24. Holl S. Intertwining, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998 (first published in 1996).
